Rashni Kim ducked and prodded her way through the maze of sellers and overflowing stores of goods that spilled out into the alley. The Hanjogag Market was in full swing, and shouts of bids and the clamour of hundreds of footfalls crashed together into a rhythmic hum of commotion.
The small pink hood bobbed and ducked under baskets of fruits and around rolling carts. She turned down this avenue and that, in no particular order, as if she was specifically trying to lose the pursuit of Rashni. The small girl under the hood, Gyu-won, delicately snatched a friend Wonton from a pushcart as she stumbled along past it. Popping it in her mouth she tasted the wonderful juiciness of pseudo pork and smelled the wafting aroma of a hundred other food cart vendors. Rashni could hear the clang of silver dollars in her shrunken sweatshirt kangaroo pocket. She could only follow that sound for so long in such chaos.
You really must slow down so I may talk to you.
However the little Gyu-won did not slow down. She detoured through Koba’s Electronics, where Rashni knew to only walk through. As she did she nodded to Pak Ohm with a smile, and he nodded back. His eyes still clung to the little pink hoodie that bobbed quickly though his many shelves. He chuckled for a moment, and then sunk back into the smoke of his soldering iron and molten flux vapors. AS soon as Rashni broke from the other end of Koba’s the little girl ducked under a low draping of colorful knit carpets in a shop down the corridor, and was gone.
Rashni Kim was left alone in a very crowded place. Two seperate pocket watch vendors tried to haggle her their wares, showing her the overpolished worn metal sprockets and clacky electric lit dials. She tried to think ahead of the six year old and where she may be headed with a pocket full of old world change.
“Juice.”
Rashni knew exactly where the young girl was headed. A kid’s only destination when they scrounge up four old world coins, Juice. A tiny apartment in the residential section of floor 92 Section C, Juice was just a mishmashed wall of old world goods and posters cemented to the wall. Yet right in the center of all this old crap, under the JUICE! sign, was an old gashapon machine. Put four coins in, and you get a prize contained within a small egg. IT must be where Gyu-won was headed.
Rashni knew she could easily cut off a large section of time with the elevators… but she wasn’t risking riding in one of the metal deathtraps again. Next time, she thought, it might just bring her all the way down to hell itself.
Bursting through a heavily graffitied exit door and interrupting two mohawked teenagers hidden stairwell kiss, Rashni descended the metal lattice of stairs. Her legs rumbled beneath her with precision, rounding bends with her hand on the railing.
98…..97…..96 She read the signs aloud as she bolted past their bold yellow digits, as if she would forget if she said the numbers in her head.
95…..94…..93 Even if she did find the little girl, whose to say she didn’t already sell those seeds anyway. SHe must have dried them in the food dehydrator for a reason.
…..92 Rashni burst through the metal press level latch on the scraped red metal door and burst out onto floor Ninety Two. Looking around to get her bearings she began a sprint down towards Section C. She rounded the corner, and there was Juice, but now one stood underneath its old sign.
“How do I win this odd game?” Said Gyu-won, picking at the purple chipped nail polish on her thumb.
Rashini practically jumped out of her skin and spun around to find Gyu-won behind her, standing in front of a long unused water pipe inset into the wall. “Jeez child, you near killed me of fright.”
“You were chasing me bucko!” The little girl exclaimed.
Rashni caught her breath and rested her hands on her thighs as she took a deep exhale, mixed with a subtle laugh. The child was a lot smarter than her age would suspect.
“You want the Canterbury seeds don't you? That's why you are chasing a little girl through a market she clearly knows better than you?” A surprising amount of sass lined the tones of her voice. She was fantastically animated as she spoke, bobbing back onto her heels in her mismatched sneakers, both a shade of rose pink.
“I don’t want them, all I want to know is how you grew them.”
The little girl seemed puzzled, as if she didn't understand the query.
Rashni stood up and straightened out her back. “Hun, Canterbury fruit hasn’t been grown since before Jisang stood alone in the fog.”
Gyu-won walked past Rashni up to the Juice gashapon machine. “All of the kids have been growing new fruits.”
Rashni was delightfully confused, “But how?”
Gyu-Won spoke as she began to thread some odd silver coins into the machine, “You have any old coins?”
Rashni emptied her breast and grabbed a golden coin she had kept for years. She didn’t believe in luck but it never hurt to keep it in her coat pocket. She paused for a moment, holding the warm soft metal in between her fingers.
Maybe it really did bring her a bit of luck after all this time.
She flipped the coin towards Gyu-won who caught it with two open palms. Without even taking note of its gold shine she dunked the coin into the machine. Red and blue lights blared all over the machine. The eye in the Juice sign lit up and blinked as the lottery like spinners spun. A clunking noise ended the lights and a tiny plastic sign popped out of the side of the machine with a flashy red arrow pointing at a worn door flap. The arrow mechanically retracted, and when it's slow journey came to an end, it was quiet.
Gyu-won pushed open the metal flap and stuck her small hand inside. She pulled out a pink plastic Easter egg and turned her back to Juice. The little girl in the pink hood walked back over and looked up to Rashni, holding out the egg in one small grasping hand with the chipped purple nail polish on each finger. Rashni bent down and accepted the gift, and the little girl walked off, opening the stairwell door and drumming down the metal lattice steps.
The woman was along now in the metal clad hallway, with Juice blinking ahead of her. She cracked open the egg, the two halves separated and her prize emptied into her open palm.
Seeds of shape and color that the botanist had never seen in her entire life.
Rashni Kim ducked and prodded her way through the maze of sellers and overflowing stores of goods that spilled out into the alley. The Hanjogag Market was in full swing, and shouts of bids and the clamour of hundreds of footfalls crashed together into a rhythmic hum of commotion.
The small pink hood bobbed and ducked under baskets of fruits and around rolling carts. She turned down this avenue and that, in no particular order, as if she was specifically trying to lose the pursuit of Rashni. The small girl under the hood, Gyu-won, delicately snatched a friend Wonton from a pushcart as she stumbled along past it. Popping it in her mouth she tasted the wonderful juiciness of pseudo pork and smelled the wafting aroma of a hundred other food cart vendors. Rashni could hear the clang of silver dollars in her shrunken sweatshirt kangaroo pocket. She could only follow that sound for so long in such chaos.
You really must slow down so I may talk to you.
However the little Gyu-won did not slow down. She detoured through Koba’s Electronics, where Rashni knew to only walk through. As she did she nodded to Pak Ohm with a smile, and he nodded back. His eyes still clung to the little pink hoodie that bobbed quickly though his many shelves. He chuckled for a moment, and then sunk back into the smoke of his soldering iron and molten flux vapors. AS soon as Rashni broke from the other end of Koba’s the little girl ducked under a low draping of colorful knit carpets in a shop down the corridor, and was gone.
Rashni Kim was left alone in a very crowded place. Two seperate pocket watch vendors tried to haggle her their wares, showing her the overpolished worn metal sprockets and clacky electric lit dials. She tried to think ahead of the six year old and where she may be headed with a pocket full of old world change.
“Juice.”
Rashni knew exactly where the young girl was headed. A kid’s only destination when they scrounge up four old world coins, Juice. A tiny apartment in the residential section of floor 92 Section C, Juice was just a mishmashed wall of old world goods and posters cemented to the wall. Yet right in the center of all this old crap, under the JUICE! sign, was an old gashapon machine. Put four coins in, and you get a prize contained within a small egg. IT must be where Gyu-won was headed.
Rashni knew she could easily cut off a large section of time with the elevators… but she wasn’t risking riding in one of the metal deathtraps again. Next time, she thought, it might just bring her all the way down to hell itself.
Bursting through a heavily graffitied exit door and interrupting two mohawked teenagers hidden stairwell kiss, Rashni descended the metal lattice of stairs. Her legs rumbled beneath her with precision, rounding bends with her hand on the railing.
98…..97…..96 She read the signs aloud as she bolted past their bold yellow digits, as if she would forget if she said the numbers in her head.
95…..94…..93 Even if she did find the little girl, whose to say she didn’t already sell those seeds anyway. SHe must have dried them in the food dehydrator for a reason.
…..92 Rashni burst through the metal press level latch on the scraped red metal door and burst out onto floor Ninety Two. Looking around to get her bearings she began a sprint down towards Section C. She rounded the corner, and there was Juice, but now one stood underneath its old sign.
“How do I win this odd game?” Said Gyu-won, picking at the purple chipped nail polish on her thumb.
Rashini practically jumped out of her skin and spun around to find Gyu-won behind her, standing in front of a long unused water pipe inset into the wall. “Jeez child, you near killed me of fright.”
“You were chasing me bucko!” The little girl exclaimed.
Rashni caught her breath and rested her hands on her thighs as she took a deep exhale, mixed with a subtle laugh. The child was a lot smarter than her age would suspect.
“You want the Canterbury seeds don't you? That's why you are chasing a little girl through a market she clearly knows better than you?” A surprising amount of sass lined the tones of her voice. She was fantastically animated as she spoke, bobbing back onto her heels in her mismatched sneakers, both a shade of rose pink.
“I don’t want them, all I want to know is how you grew them.”
The little girl seemed puzzled, as if she didn't understand the query.
Rashni stood up and straightened out her back. “Hun, Canterbury fruit hasn’t been grown since before Jisang stood alone in the fog.”
Gyu-won walked past Rashni up to the Juice gashapon machine. “All of the kids have been growing new fruits.”
Rashni was delightfully confused, “But how?”
Gyu-Won spoke as she began to thread some odd silver coins into the machine, “You have any old coins?”
Rashni emptied her breast and grabbed a golden coin she had kept for years. She didn’t believe in luck but it never hurt to keep it in her coat pocket. She paused for a moment, holding the warm soft metal in between her fingers.
Maybe it really did bring her a bit of luck after all this time.
She flipped the coin towards Gyu-won who caught it with two open palms. Without even taking note of its gold shine she dunked the coin into the machine. Red and blue lights blared all over the machine. The eye in the Juice sign lit up and blinked as the lottery like spinners spun. A clunking noise ended the lights and a tiny plastic sign popped out of the side of the machine with a flashy red arrow pointing at a worn door flap. The arrow mechanically retracted, and when it's slow journey came to an end, it was quiet.
Gyu-won pushed open the metal flap and stuck her small hand inside. She pulled out a pink plastic Easter egg and turned her back to Juice. The little girl in the pink hood walked back over and looked up to Rashni, holding out the egg in one small grasping hand with the chipped purple nail polish on each finger. Rashni bent down and accepted the gift, and the little girl walked off, opening the stairwell door and drumming down the metal lattice steps.
The woman was along now in the metal clad hallway, with Juice blinking ahead of her. She cracked open the egg, the two halves separated and her prize emptied into her open palm.
Seeds of shape and color that the botanist had never seen in her entire life.